BEIJING - China's industrial value-added output grew 11.6 percent year on year in the first quarter of this year, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday.

The quarterly growth has picked up from 11.4 percent in the first two months. In March alone, the industrial value-added output was up 11.9 percent from a year earlier.

In month-on-month terms, March's industrial value-added output was 1.22 percent higher than a month ago, according to Sheng Laiyun, an NBS spokesman.

Industrial value-added output measures the final output value of industrial production, or the value of gross industrial output minus intermediate input, such as raw materials and labor costs.

Industrial and other indicators have shown that China's economic performance in March has improved from the first two months and that the country's economy has stabilized and started to recover, said Sheng.

China's economy expanded 8.1 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012, the slowest in 11 quarters, according to the NBS.

The research body's figures also show China's industrial profits declined 5.2 percent year-on-year to 606 billion yuan ($96.2 billion) in the first two months.

Industrial value-added output for the heavy industry sector rose 11 percent from a year earlier in the first quarter, while that of the light industry sector climbed 13.2 percent. All 41 of the country's industrial sectors posted gains in the first two months.

In China's east, industrial value-added output increased 8.9 percent, while it rose by 16.9 percent in central areas and by 14.5 percent in western parts of the country.